Rough week-end

Apparently when Phil got up to get ready for his early morning church meetings yesterday, Adam called out because he wasn't feeling well. In the interest of getting even five more minutes sleep out of Noah, Phil thought it best to move Adam into bed with me. At around 7:30, while Adam and I were starting to stir, Noah came rumbling in and crawled into bed too. Phil was already gone, and since there was clearly no more sleep to be had, the three of us decided to call my friend Sue to wish her a happy birthday. After all, if we weren't sleeping, why should she?? Besides, she lives alone an it's not often that she gets to be awakened by happy little boy voices so early on a Sunday morning, so I pick up the phone and dial. I offer the heartiest Happy Birthday! that I could muster and then handed Adam the phone. Noah was chomping at the bit, so Adam finished quickly and passed it off to Noah who sang the most rousing version of Happy Birthday to You! (with those four words repeated at least 14 times) that you have ever heard. In the middle of Noah's song, Adam said "I don't feel well." I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom, but before I even finished the sentence he started to cry and said "My tummy hurts." At that precise moment, evidence of just how much he didn't feel well erupted all over Adam, our bed, Phil's pillow, and the floor. Noah was still singing so I told Adam to run for the bathroom while I jumped out of bed to help him. He made it to the toilet just in time to deposit that last bit of spit that tends to punctuate such an episode. I spent the rest of my morning cleaning Adam and the bedding and the carpet.

Last night we hosted a large group (we stopped counting after 50 people were crammed into our family room and kitchen and they started to overflow into the rest of the house) of Sue's friends and family at a surprise birthday gathering for her. It was a lot of fun, but poor Adam was flat on his back in bed trying to sleep through a fever. After the party broke, Phil and I decided that it would be best for Adam to sleep with me in our bed again so that I would be there with him should he need help in the middle of the night. I'm happy to say that our sleep wasn't interrupted until this morning when Phil deposited a wide-awake Noah in bed with me as he was on his way to the shower. Adam was stirring, but still basically asleep so I stayed put, deep in denial that my day was just about to begin. At one point Adam asked me if he could take a bath again but other than that it was pretty quiet, with Noah even willing to just lay there quietly. There we stayed until Phil returned from the shower and announced that there was a foul odor in the room. Our usual suspect, Noah, insisted that it wasn't him. I thought that it might be remnants from Adam's troubles from the day before that I didn't quite get scrubbed out of the carpet, but Phil insisted that it was more than that. I turned to Adam and by the look on his face I could tell that he was distressed. He simply said "That is why I wanted to take another bath." And then he looked like he wanted to cry again. Poor kid. All I can say is that I don't think I have ever in my entire life completely washed and changed my bedding two days in a row. And it's been quite a while since Adam willingly took a bath two days in a row. Phil always accuses me of not having a very acute sense of smell, and I think this incident settles that argument once and for all. I'm so glad that I had Adam sleep with me last night so that I could help him if he needed it. (I'm not sure if it translates in writing very well, but that last sentence was sarcasm at it's best.)

My parenting tips for the day:
1. Next time you decide to buy a new mattress, just bite the bullet and pay for the high-end mattress pad. You'll be happy that you have it. According to Phil this morning, that's some of the best money we have ever spent.
2. Sometimes it's just better to throw the clothes away than to wash them. I'm very thankful that Adam wore his sweats to bed last night. They are bright blue and from the clearance table at Wal-Mart so it wasn't too hard to let them go.